The document presents strategies for setting and achieving personal and professional goals, emphasizing the importance of a structured approach. It discusses the significance of incremental progress and offers practical tips for effective organization and prioritization of tasks. The content also explores the psychological aspects of goal-setting and encourages readers to design their lives around their ambitions.

1. SETTING GOALS
ATI WOMEN IN TECH
AUGUST, 2017
PRESENTED BY SARAH BUERGER & DR CHRIS STOUT

2. GOAL
/ɡōl/
•the object of a person's ambition or effort; an aim or
desired result
•the end toward which effort is directed
•a desired result or possible outcome that a person or
a system envisions, plans and commits to achieve

3. TYPES OF PEOPLE--#1
Goals? Who needs goals? I like to fly
by the seat of my pants!

4. TYPES OF PEOPLE--#2
-Don’t need to write them down—they are all
in my brain!
-akin to building a house without a
blueprint

5. TYPES OF PEOPLE--#3
-Why bother writing them down, everything is going to
change anyway?!
-How can you course correct if you don’t know where you
are going?

6. TYPES OF PEOPLE--#4
-I don’t know how to articulate my goals

8. LIFE BALANCE
Sorry! We can’t have it
all—at least not at the
same time!

9. SMART GOALS
Not SMART: Provide project management support for all
Team Dry Needle projects
SMART: Delivery Project X within budget, scope and
schedule as approved by IT Steering Committee:
Budget: $1.3M
Scope: 15 pilot clinics
Schedule: by 9/30/2017

11. SETTING GOALS IS A SKILL—AND YOU CAN LEARN IT
You need a system
• Set
• Achieve
• Celebrate
• Consider all of the areas of your life: Health, wealth, relationships, finance, career
growth, personal growth, making a difference
• 3% of people in the world set goals

12. I’LL BE DISCUSSING…
• Work/Life “Balance”
• Productivity
• Organization
• To-do (Micro and macro) Lists
• To-Don’t Lists
• Goodies and tools.

14. WORK DOESN’T “VS.” LIFE
• I strive to have systems and structures in place (and constantly tweak, learn,
add/shed) that I think are mutually beneficial to many aspects of my life —
which includes:
• Relationships (family, friends, colleagues),
• Health (exercise, diet, sleep),
• Habits and approaches (“hacks,” tools, auto-pilots),
• Writing (personal journal, LinkedIn, scientific papers, love notes),
• Learning (parenting, professional education, intimacy),
• and the list goes on...

15. WORK DOESN’T “VS.” LIFE
• Most everything in my life is like an overlapping Venn
diagram, BUT I have found that the amounts of overlap will
vary “seasonally.”
• Think of an athlete and the various regimens s/he goes through depending
on whether one’s sport is in season.
• When it's training time, workouts change, diet changes, stressors change.
• When one is playing, workouts change, diet changes, stressors change.
• And when one is in the post/off-season, workouts change, diet changes,
stressors change.

16. WORK DOESN’T “VS.” LIFE
• In life, this is paralleled with lifestyle changes:
• Studying for finals,
• Having a newborn,
• Preparing for a big presentation to a group of VCs…
• All of which are time-limited, stressful, and may cause a lack of sound
sleep.
• Once past (“post-season”), things can begin to return to a less stressful
phase, with new priorities manifesting that need to be dealt with
• This is why I think life is more about “ratios” rather than “balance.”

17. DEVELOP A SYSTEM AND PROCESS THAT
WORKS FOR YOU
•Iterate and tweak as need be
•Use whatever tech/tools suites your fancy
• I like electronic for calendar
• I like ink and paper for To-Do
• I like Bullet Journals and Moleskin for Projects
• I like Word for Macro.

18. “THE LIST”
• There’s a magic of writing that turns abstract ideas into
Concrete
Actionable
Tangible possibilities

19. SO YOU WANT TO BE AN
ASTRONAUT…?

21. SOME OTHER
INSPIRATIONS/TOOLS

22. MY LIFE LIST: MACRO

23. VARIOUS WAYS TO GET THERE….
• Many people have it backward— they design their ambitions around their
life, rather than designing their life around their ambitions.
• What are the things you absolutely must do before you die? Start there.
• Then design your life around those things. Or as Stephen Covey explained
in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, "Begin with the end in mind."
• A simple mental exercise that may be helpful is imagining you only have 30
days to live. What would you do in those 30 days?
• Now imagine you have five years to live. What would you do during those
five years?

24. • Twenty years ago, Kevin Kelly, on the very first edition of This
American Life, described the experience of what he did when he acted
like had six months to live.
• This then led him to use actuarial data to estimate his longevity
(which can be tweaked higher or lower based on your health, lifestyle,
and family history if so desired).

25. • So let’s say I’ll live another 30 years. I can convert that into a specific
date by using the Date Duration Calculator. Creepy? Perhaps a little.
But what a sobering motivator!

26. INCREMENTAL PROGRESS APPROACH
• “People often overestimate what they can accomplish in one year. But they greatly
underestimate what they could accomplish in five years.” - Peter Drucker
• Many people can’t follow through on the things they really want to achieve
in life because they are obsessed with the big picture, instead of keeping an
eye on the crucial, tiny daily actions.
• The problem with big goals is that they can be intimidating. The picture can
paralyze you into inaction.
• But if you start focusing on an incremental system designed to help you take
action daily, you can easily make 10x progress over time
• Consistent action coupled with time guarantees lasting progress.

27. LASTING PROGRESS IS INCREMENTAL
• Many people underestimate the power of incremental progress. They think
they have to take massive action to achieve anything significant.
• In “The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success,”
author Darren Hardy says:
• “Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE”
• In order to get what you want, you have to choose one direction and move
towards it, constantly improving over a prolonged period of time
• You can write a 50,000-word book in 100 days if you focus on one 500-word
piece at a time.

28. SOME TIPS TO HELP YOU COMPLETE YOUR
TO-DO LIST
LIMIT IT TO SIX THINGS A DAY
• As James Clear wrote, the idea isn’t that six is some sort of magic
number, it’s that by imposing a limit on the amount of tasks on your
to-do list, you’re forced to make tough decisions about what’s
important and what’s not.
• Also, the idea of tackling a to-do list of six is a lot less overwhelming
than a to-do list of 20–which means you’ll be less likely to
procrastinate.

29. DIVIDE IT INTO SECTIONS
• There are certain tasks that are just easy to do one after another, and
others require a complete switch in thinking.
• If we’re interrupted by a phone call when we’re heads down writing a
report, it’ll probably take us awhile to get back “in the zone” after that
phone call, and as a result we take much longer to complete our task
because we need to allow time for brain transition.
• This is why lumping similar tasks together make sense; you’ll get
more done in less time that way.
• Example, divide tasks between:
• “digital quickies” (like emailing someone or making dinner reservations),
• “work” (writing, reporting, and pitching stories) and
• “real world” (personal errands like laundry or grocery shopping).

30. TRY TIME BLOCKING or CHUNKING
• Maybe you’re just not a “list person,” or you find it difficult to break
down “making progress on that big project” to smaller to-dos.
• You could try abandoning lists altogether, and instead dedicate
chunks of time for certain work instead.
• You can devote time slots to certain work rather than make her way
down a long list.

31. Not all to-dos are created equal

32. MY TO-DO LISTS
AND LOGS: MICRO

34. Another great
prioritization method

35. HOW ABOUT YOU…?
• Who has a goal, or two or twenty?
• How many of you have written them down?
• Who else knows about them?

36. HOW ABOUT YOU…?
• Who has a to-do list?
• What format or approach works well for you?

37. TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES…
• Inventory your dreams
• Estimate when to achieve them/timeline them
• Pick the 5 most important for this year
• Evaluate your five key goals thru your filter.

38. • Make a list of the most important reasons you are ready to
achieve these goals
• List 3 – 5 times in your life you were totally successful
• What kind of person do you need to become to achieve your
outcomes?

39. ONCE YOU HAVE A GOAL,
ENVISION IT AS FULLY AS YOU CAN
• How does it…
• Look
• Smell
• Feel
• Taste
• Sound
• Is it what you expected/wanted?
39

40. • Write a few paragraphs about what prevents you from what
you want
• What’s your “why”?
• Develop a strategy and/or a system
• Put goals together to support each other
• Take action.

41. PARADOX
• Goal not per se to achieve it, but rather the pursuit
• “Processional Effect”
• Without goals, emotions can become more variable, and
people risk becoming unhappy.
41

42. HAVE A SYSTEM
Pain: Going to the gym 3-4 times a week is a goal. Exercising 3-4 times a week can feel like punishment -
especially if you overdo it because you’re impatient to get results. Then gym = pain.
Eventually you will find yourself “too busy” to keep up your 3-4 days of exercise. The real reason will be
because it just hurts and you don’t want to do it anymore.
Gain: Instead, think of exercising 3-4 times a week with a system of being active every day at a level
that feels good, while continuously learning about the best methods of exercise for you.
Then you are training both your body and psyche look forward to the psychological lift you get from
being active every day.
Next, it becomes easier to exercise than to skip it - no willpower required, and you can build from that
foundation
That’s a system.
Scott Adams: using systems instead of goals. For example, losing
ten pounds is a goal (that most people can’t maintain), whereas
learning to eat right is a system that substitutes knowledge for
willpower.

43. NOT-TO-DO LIST/TO-DON’T LIST
• Prieto Principle: 80/20 Rule
• Evolution from “Yes to everything” to only “HECK YES..!!!” or it’s “no”
• Helps to become clear(er) on what your priorities are
• Your to-do list will become more useful

46. • Travel Tips and Hacks
• Tools and approaches for better managing your finances and investments
• Productivity tools
• Fitness
• Managing your relationships
• Leadership
• Tools to increase your creativity
• Ways to get rid of bad habits, and ways to foster helpful ones
• Methods to overcome difficult situations
• Career tips galore…

48. “POX OF THE ‘UNTILS’...”
• Until I finish school
• Until I pay off my loans
• Until I get married/divorced
• Until I lose 10 pounds
• Until I …

51. Wanna know what I think is even cooler…?

52. Just over a month later,
John Landy Aus shaved almost two seconds off
Bannister’s time.
And you know what?

53. Over the course of the following few
years, 19 others ran sub-4 minute miles.
19..!

54. How come?
What took so long?

56. WEBSITES NOTED HEREIN:
• Chris’ stuff http://DrChrisStout.com
• Countdown timer: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/create
• Goddard’s Life List: http://www.johngoddard.info/life_list.htm
• This American Life: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/50/shoulda-
been-dead
• Chris’ Life List: https://www.slideshare.net/drchrisstout1/the-list-27414319
• Incremental Change: https://medium.com/the-mission/10x-your-results-one-tiny-action-at-a-
time-the-power-of-incremental-progress-cda9ed3ff36e
• These Five Tricks Will Help You Finally Complete Your To-Do List:
https://www.fastcompany.com/40440153/these-five-tricks-will-help-you-finally-complete-
your-to-do-list?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fcdaily-
top&position=7&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=07192017
• The Eisenhower Box: http://jamesclear.com/eisenhower-box